Links between antibiotics and bowel cancer

Antibiotics are drugs used for treatment and prevention of bacteria, using antibiotics for a long period of time can increase the risk of developing bowel cancer.

Group of researchers used data from Nurses Health Study, to monitor 121,700 U S nurses since 1976. The women were between 30 and 55 years at the beginning of the study.

Researchers used data from 16, 642 of the women at age 60, the information about the use of antibiotic between age 20-59 was provided, some of them had undergo bowel examination and 1195 had polyps benign tumors that leads to cancer.

The team discovered that antibiotic used recently are not associated with cancer development but long-term used in the past.